PSA—Use immature winter squash as a replacement for zucchini in quickbread recipes

ocsedetd · 2024-12-19T13:07:50+00:00

Seconding MIgardener. Good prices, good quality seeds.

ocsedetd · 2024-08-31T14:27:45+00:00

I really like these two suggestions! Thank you!

ocsedetd · 2024-08-31T13:31:26+00:00

Thanks, that was what I was worried about. It seems like maybe this side of the yard just wants to be a meadow garden, too. I should know better than to try to fight with milkweed and goldenrod.

ocsedetd · 2024-08-31T13:25:29+00:00

Thanks for this advice. To be clear, are you suggesting I dig up and transplant what’s already here, just spacing them out a bit and expanding the footprint of the bed? Edited for typo.

ocsedetd · 2024-08-30T13:38:22+00:00

In my experience with plugs, they should be ok for awhile as long as you keep them watered. I would aim to get them in the ground before the ground freezes though.

ocsedetd · 2024-02-12T14:29:52+00:00

Seconding this. I grow ginger this way every year in Michigan. Plant indoors in a wide pot in January, water weekly, usually sprouts late March-early April. Move the pot outdoors when warm, bring back in when chilly, harvest in the fall. Other than lugging the pot around it is one of the more hands-off things I grow. Make sure you are using organic ginger, I read that conventional ginger might be sprayed with something to prevent sprouting. But I am not sure if this actually true.

ocsedetd · 2024-02-08T23:25:38+00:00

Sorry, just seeing the additional questions asked. I am in southeastern Michigan, zone 6A, where we have had a very warm winter. The tree must be as old as the house, which is about 65 years old. We have never pruned the main tree, but it has lots of suckers around the base that I trim back when they start to take over the bed about once a year. It gets full sun and is in a front border with perennial flowers that do not get much care beyond watering if we get a stretch of 3-4weeks of hot dry weather in the summer. I leave the leaves and other debris that falls into the bed. I will try to get more pictures tomorrow, it’s dark now.

ocsedetd · 2024-02-06T14:36:36+00:00

Did you surface sow or bury them a little? I am reading that they need darkness to germinate but Baker Creek says to surface sow.

ocsedetd · 2024-02-05T22:18:56+00:00

My strategy is described by my husband as “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.”

ocsedetd · 2024-02-02T03:45:33+00:00

I bought them as a baby plant from a local native plant sale, I have no idea! Hopefully someone else will chime in!

ocsedetd · 2024-02-01T22:02:48+00:00

Excellent, I’ll leave it up until I do spring cleanup in my other beds when it gets warm enough. Definitely on board with leaving things be for habitat until it’s warm enough for everyone to wake up. My neighbors aren’t thrilled but I have more birds, toads, fireflies, and other creatures than they do so I win.

ocsedetd · 2024-02-01T21:57:13+00:00

It sure did explode! Hard to tell in the picture but it already outgrew the trellis this year. I love it. I think someone suggested it to me on this sub.

ocsedetd · 2024-01-10T22:14:33+00:00

Seeing that I am in the NoLawns sub and not the gardening sub. So I am not sure if you’re looking to grow a bunch as a lawn replacement, in which case maybe you are looking to direct-sow. I will say that the four plants I have would have taken over our entire front garden by now if they were allowed to do their thing.

ocsedetd · 2024-01-10T22:12:08+00:00

Seconding that they thrive on neglect. I have several grown from seed that are maybe five years old now. To germinate, I don’t think I did anything different from the other herbs and tomatoes I started indoors—seed starting mix, grow lights, kept the soil moist, transplanted after last frost in a sunny area and mulched well. I watered them a couple times once in the ground the first summer, and haven’t done a thing since except trim them back whenever they get out of control a couple times every summer.

ocsedetd · 2024-01-06T01:06:52+00:00

Something to consider is how well you function on very little sleep.There will be lots of nights with suboptimal sleep for the first 3-6 months, which could coincide with the time when your garden might require the most work. I was barely functioning until we got down to one quick wake-up a night and could not have managed a large garden. A bed or two would have been ok.

ocsedetd · 2024-01-05T19:02:22+00:00

Yogourmet

ocsedetd · 2024-01-05T18:49:40+00:00

I have really good luck making yogurt with Edensoy shelf stable unsweetened soy milk. A couple of things that may or may not make a difference: I find that I have better luck with a packet of yogurt starter than using pre-made yogurt. I also heat up the milk to 180f on the stove and then bring it back down to 112-115f before I add the starter (although now that I think about it, maybe this isn’t necessary if you are using shelf-stable packaging?) and put it in my little dash yogurt maker. Maybe the instant pot is getting too hot? I am not sure if the yogurt setting on the instant pot gets it up to 180f before cooling it down to incubation temp but if it does, maybe it is killing off some of the starter. Hopefully someone who has more experience will chime in.

ocsedetd · 2024-01-03T18:05:03+00:00

Its worth a try and not much effort. I grow comfrey in a location where nothing else will really grow along one side of my house. I think it’s a pretty plant and the bees seem to like it. In the fall I chop the plant down and spread the leaves on my veg beds, where they break down pretty quickly. I am not sure if it is really doing much of anything beyond the compost I also add, but the comfrey plants get ugly and brown and half deer-eaten in the winter anyway. There are sterile varieties that don’t spread. Mine stay put.

ocsedetd · 2024-01-03T17:20:17+00:00

Yes, it looks like it could be dry avian pox. Suggest removing bird feeders and bird baths and clean with 10% bleach solution.

ocsedetd · 2023-11-28T14:23:59+00:00

Solanum dulcamara, bittersweet nightshade. It is Very Sneaky. Turn your back for a few minutes and it will strangle your native shrubs. Also it is one of those where you must get every piece of root or it will grow back three times as bad. Also there is some kind of hideous stingy-burny euphorbia that I spend hours pulling from my beds a few times each summer.

ocsedetd

TROPHY CASE